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Pennsylvania is the third state to sue Uber Technologies Inc. under its state data
breach notification law, following a widespread 2017 hacking incident that the ride-hailing
company kept under wraps for over a year, according to a claim filed March 5 in Pennsylvania
District Court.

As many as 43 state attorney generals are investigating Uber in relation to the breach.

Pennsylvania’s move is likely to trigger lawsuits by other state attorneys general,
who are coordinating their investigations, Ed McAndrew, privacy and data security
partner at Ballard Spahr LLP in Philadelphia, told Bloomberg Law.

The
lawsuit makes Pennsylvania the third state, after Washington and Massachusetts, to sue over
the breach, which exposed the personal information—including names, email addresses,
and driver’s license numbers—of 57 million drivers and consumers. Los Angeles, San
Francisco, and Chicago also have sued Uber.

Pennsylvania’s lawsuit alleges Uber violated its state’s data breach notification
law, which requires organizations affected by a data breach to notify persons whose
data they hold “without unreasonable delay.” It marks the first lawsuit brought by
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro under the statute on behalf of consumers,
he said in a statement.

Uber: `Surprised’ by Lawsuit

“While I was surprised by Pennsylvania’s complaint this morning, I look forward to
continuing the dialogue we’ve started as Uber seeks to resolve this matter,” Tony
West, Uber’s chief legal officer told Bloomberg Law. “We make no excuses for the previous
failure to disclose the data breach. While we do not in any way minimize what occurred,
it’s crucial to note that the information compromised did not include any sensitive
consumer information such as credit card numbers or social security numbers.”

“Uber violated Pennsylvania law by failing to put our residents on timely notice of
this massive data breach,” Shapiro said. “Instead of notifying impacted consumers
of the breach within a reasonable amount of time, Uber hid the incident for over a
year—and actually paid the hackers to delete the data and stay quiet,” the state attorney
general said.

Under the law, Shapiro’s office may seek remedies of up to $1,000 for each violation.
With at least 13,500 Uber drivers impacted by the breach, the attorney general’s legal
team can seek civil penalties as high as $13.5 million from Uber, Shapiro said.

A second claim in the lawsuit alleges the company’s conduct violated the Pennsylvania
Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.

In addition suing for an alleged failure to notify in a timely manner, other states
have sued Uber for allegedly failing to maintain reasonable security. Pennsylvania
doesn’t have a reasonable security law.

Failure to notify is an easier claim to make than reasonable security, McAndrew said.
The one year it took Uber to report the breach would seem to fall outside the “without
unreasonable delay” standard, he said.

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